Global ad spend: TV remains champ; display ads catching up

According to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, ad spend by media type continued on trend through the first three quarters of 2013, with television and display Internet advertising leading the charge globally.

While measured in a smaller subset of countries, display Internet ads grew by more than 32 percent in the first three quarters of 2013 compared to the same time period for the year prior. Internet ads are proving to be the “diaper dandies” of the ad industry and marketers widely consider them to be rapidly growing in importance. If the medium’s rapid growth is any indication, marketers projections are on the money.

Despite the rapid growth of display Internet’s ad budgets, TV continues to reign supreme with a 57.6 percent share of all ad spending and advertisers investing 4.3 percent more into the medium. Even in Europe, where total ad spending has been trending negatively for several consecutive quarters, TV advertising spending remained flat (0.0%) during the first three quarters of the year.

European advertisers, however, cut 6.5 percent of their ad spending on radio during the first three quarters of 2013. On the other hand, Latin American advertisers invested 12.4 percent more on this media type. Globally, radio advertising spending has decreased by 0.7 percent year-to-date. Also trending negatively, ad spend has dropped in newspapers, magazines and cinema (2.2%, 1.1% and 1.3% respectively), as advertisers increasingly move their ad budgets to both television and display Internet.

“While it comes as no surprise that Internet is the most rapidly growing media type for advertisers, television is still the leading medium by spend by a long shot,” says Randall Beard, Global Head of Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen. “But the really exciting development is how the two can work together. We are consistently seeing advertisers turn to integrated campaigns to connect with consumers on multiple screens, reinforcing their messages strategically to maximize impact.”